Chapter 67: The Spirit Materialized (2/2)

We noticed that Yu Jun was standing in front of a window on the fifth floor with a grave expression on his face. He seemed to be talking to someone. He then glanced out of the window, then quickly pulled the curtain up.

“Did he notice us?” asked Dali nervously.

“I don’t think so.” Huang Xiaotao shook her head.

After a while, Yu Jun came down and drove away. We walked to the front of the building when a guy in a sweater came downstairs holding something in his hands. He walked past us without giving us any notice.

We went up to the fifth floor and stopped in front of a door. Huang Xiaotao pulled out two hairpins from her hair and handed them to me.

“Great Detective Song,” she said, “it’s time for you to show off your magical powers.”

I was reminded of our last conversation when I last picked a lock with her hairpins and said, “I’ll buy you nicer pins later!”

“Good!” laughed Huang Xiaotao. “That’s an improvement!”

It didn’t take me more than a minute to unlock the door. We entered the room and saw that it was almost empty. There was no furniture at all safe for a bare bed frame. Obviously, this was a temporarily rented house. There was no sign of the Wealth Beckoning Cat here, although I did notice a small pile of ashes on the floor in a corner of the room.

We almost turned the room upside down searching for the Wealth Beckoning Cat. We even opened the window and checked the window sill—but all was in vain.

“Could he have snuck it out somehow?” asked Huang Xiaotao.

“Shit!” I cursed. “That guy we walked past downstairs!”

“Let’s chase him!” barked Huang Xiaotao.

We flew downstairs. But no matter how fast we ran we had been delayed for five minutes searching the room upstairs. The man must’ve gotten pretty far away by now. An idea flashed into my mind, and with a glimmer of hope, I called Wang Yuanchao and asked him where he was right now.

“Guangming District,” he replied.

I was overjoyed.

“We’re here too! Is Bai Yidao here?” I asked.

“Yes, I just saw him enter a building,” answered Wang Yuanchao. “But he just got out, and he’s holding something in his hands.”

“Is your car engine on?”

“Yes!”

“Then send your location to Huang Xiaotao’s car with GPS,” I instructed. “We’ll be following close behind you!”

After hanging up the phone, I told Huang Xiaotao to quickly get into the car and drive. I briefly explained the current situation to her: the man we walked past in front of the building was Bai Yidao, and just as I expected, he and Yu Jun knew each other. Moreover, the Wealth Beckoning Cat was most probably in Bai Yidao’s hands right now.

We used GPS to lock in on Wang Yuanchao’s location and followed him all the way. After a while, he parked his car behind a hotel. He then got out of his car and came over to us.

“Bai Yidao just entered the hotel,” he said.

“He must be dealing with the Wealth Beckoning Cat right now,” said Huang Xiaotao.

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Dali. “Let’s charge in and catch him red-handed with the evidence!”

“No!” I frowned and shook my head. “We’re still not sure how deep Bai Yidao is in this. Perhaps he is Yu Jun’s accomplice, or perhaps he’s only helping him this one time. It’s not a good idea to corner him right now. We don’t know what he’ll do if he gets desperate. Besides, he must be carrying a gun too.”

“You shouldn’t worry about that,” said Huang Xiaotao. “Wang Yuanchao alone could easily deal with ten Bai Yidaos.”

“But we’d better be safe than sorry,” I asserted. “We’re not far from the police station. Perhaps you could call Officer Liao so he could bring some people over? Then we’ll all rush in together—that way we’ll get more witnesses too.”

“Excellent idea!” Huang Xiaotao excitedly clapped her hands. “That way Bai Yidao has nowhere to run!”